Efforts to stop Pacific sea lions from feasting on endangered salmon and steelhead have largely failed despite millions of taxpayer dollars spent on those efforts, lawmakers were told Wednesday.
In a hearing on the efficacy of the Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act adopted in 2018, witnesses told members of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries that wildlife managers have been unable to check a sustained population boom of the salmon-devouring pinnipeds — marine mammals with both front and rear flippers — that began in the 1990s.
“These animals are remarkably resilient, and they do know where their food source is,” Sam Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, told the subcommittee. “It is very difficult to encourage them to leave with anything less than force,” which usually means trap and kill.
According to NOAA, the current California sea lion population numbers 260,000 animals, up from 10,000 in the 1950s. Their larger cousin, the stellar sea lion, numbers roughly 78,000 animals.
